1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a printer for suitably impressing a print, particularly a color print, on a card which is made of a plastic material for example.
2. Description of the Related Arts
As is well known, cards are widely used for various purposes in our lives. Examples include personal identification cards (ID cards), credit cards, security cards, members cards, bank cards, and etc. Due to such prevailing of cards, there is an increasing demand for conveniently impressing a color print on the card.
The color printing is most commonly performed by an overprinting method wherein different prints in different colors are formed one on another according to the image data. According to the so-called Y.M.C. printing method, for example, a printhead is caused to successively impress a yellow print (Y: Yellow), a red print (M: Magenta), and a blue print (C: Cyanine) in overlapping relation onto a plastic card. In the so-called Y.M.C. B. printing method, a black print is additionally formed over the Y.M.C. prints.
Conventional color printers are exclusively designed for impressing an identical color print on a great number of cards. Therefore, the conventional printers are usually large-sized and structurally complicated in addition to being relatively expensive. Thus, the conventional printers are not suitable for impressing different color prints on a small lot basis. Further, the conventional printers usually incorporate a large number of solenoids and motors together with a controller for enabling sophisticated printing, which fact also adds to the size and cost of the printer.